Tricky. Don't know the history of that van - do they have a habit of doing this?

Was it possible to get it into 5th at all? It sounds like you could, although it jumped out. It may be wear on the selector forks, so it's not got enough movement to push it firmly into mesh. I take it 5th is out to one side? Is it on its own (is reverse or 4th gear opposite?).

A busted synchro wouldn't make it jump out of gear, although it would cause the 'graunching' noise, unless you did the old fashhioned double de-clutching thing.

I suspect that anything to do with a gearbox is going to be expensive. What sort of garage are you taking it to? One which specialises in gearbox repairs might be cheaper than a main or motorhome dealer.

Good luck :?

Gerald

 

You don't say what engine, but searching MHF for 5th AND gear yields:

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopic-7762-days0-orderasc-0.html

which might be illuminating.

Dave

 

Hi Marcoshouse1 - see my topic

http://www.motorhomefacts.com/ftopict-8709-sevel.html+5th+gear+turn

is yours a 2.5jtd engine?
this sound just like our porblem last year

don't panic - check out local gearbox specialist, and don't let them tell you it needs new gearbox!

 

Hi marcohouse1, this happened to me although it was 8 years ago and is/was a common fault on the Ducato gearbox.

I had a new 5th gear fitted at 5000 mile from new at Fiat garage in Spain and had no problems after 88000 mile then sold it and bought a new m/h with a Ducato gearbox as i have every faith in the Fiat engine and gearbox.

If you only get a problem with 5th and not 1st & 3rd gears it is likely to be a broken tooth in the 5th gear assembly, which is an bolt on addition to the main gearbox (not integeral) and is a simple and quick repair job.

Mine cost £250 (refunded by Fiat under warranty) and was fixed in 30 minutes but that was 8 year ago so not sure of todays prices.

You could go the whole hog and have the upgraded high ratio gearing fitted but that will be extra, though it does make a deal of difference to the bottom end torque

Bob

 

5th Gear

I met a Dutchman on a camp site in Spain who had trouble with 5th gear jumping out on his Fiat so a bunch of us decided to investigate the problem [like you do ]On crawling underneath the van we discovered that 5th gear is in a seperate box attached to the gear box and has a plastic cover which we removed ,a small amount of oil was lost.
We found that on the end of a shaft was a large nut that was only finger tight .we tightened this nut [it had no locking device of any sort ] refitted the plastic cover topped up the oil [splash fed ] and hey presto no more problems .Actually one of the crowd had done it before so it was very easy really. Hope your problem is as easily fixed.

 

I met a Dutchman on a camp site in Spain who had trouble with 5th gear jumping out on his Fiat so a bunch of us decided to investigate the problem [like you do ]On crawling underneath the van we discovered that 5th gear is in a seperate box attached to the gear box and has a plastic cover which we removed ,a small amount of oil was lost.
We found that on the end of a shaft was a large nut that was only finger tight .we tightened this nut [it had no locking device of any sort ] refitted the plastic cover topped up the oil [splash fed ] and hey presto no more problems .Actually one of the crowd had done it before so it was very easy really. Hope your problem is as easily fixed.

I need to find a repairer inSpain to fix my motor home fifth gear problem . I Am Australian near Santander And want to go to Seville
Ivan Mollot

 

Its a Fiat Ducato 2.8jtd - 1998 - 40,000 miles

Hope its a simple solution too...

 

Marcoshouse1, i do not think Fiat were putting the 2.8JTD engine in their M/Hs in 1998 I may be wrong as we will find out quickly enough, my 1998 Fiat had a 2.8TDI.

bob

 

Yes - your right I do get the letters mixed up!! Not a J in sight!!!

£400 for fitting of a new gear ratio and sync /hub. Arhhhh.

two teeth broken!!

Italian engines!!!!!!

 

Marcoshouse1, do not be so down on the italian engine, i hesitate to say this but i will, it is usually down to incorrect driving procedures that cause this problem, which by the way Fiat have never said was there.

The fifth gear on your m/h is an additional bolt on gear assembly to the main gearbox and is feed with oil from the main gearbox when the vehicle is started, the problem arises is that when you turn off the engine the back pressure empties the 5th gearbox so when you restart the 5th gearbox is empty of oil, so you have too wait until the engine reaches normal working temperature before engaging 5th gear and never use 5th under 50 mph.

I firmly believe this because when it happened to me at 3000 miles i followed the advise of the fitter that put my new one in at a garage in Spain and i did another 80000 miles in the m/h and it was still running great.

As for the £400 pound price tag mine cost £250 8 years ago so i think you have a good deal there.

Make sure you are not paying for dropping the whole gearbox as this is not required.

Hope it all works out well for you.


Bob

 

Hi Marcoshouse1

Sorry to hear about your problem, whilst it may be true that Fiat have never acknowledged a problem with 5th gear failure, the number your hear about makes you wonder! A friend of mine had a similar failure going through France enroute to Portugal last winter. had it fixed but kept the parts.

The thing is when he showed them to me, all the wear was the outer edge of the gear. No more than about 1/4 inch from the edge, it was as if only a small part of the gear teeth were taking the strain, so to speak.

To me this seems to tie in with the post about the 5th gear not being engaged fully, in effect loose in the box. Just out of curiosity, after repair would you post back with the details of just what failed.

Regards

Herman

 

Fiat 5th gear problems

I am particularly interested in the correspondence regarding these fifth gear problems as we have just arrived back from a trip to Croatia in our old 1990 2.5L Fiat Ducato based Eldis 400 Autoquest (78,000 miles on clock). Ours started occasionally jumping out of fifth on overrun last year & has got progressively worse this year. It is OK until you have done quite a few miles & it has got hot. Things got much worse as we were skirting Luxembourg on the way home this week & I was fiddling with the large stick type gear change having jumped out of fifth & freewheeled for some distance to a roundabout. As we went to accelerate away in maybe second gear there was some awful terminal sounding noises, screams & sort of tin plate rattling, 3rd & fourth were no better but fifth was OK. We drove on using fifth as much as possible as the noises continued in the lower gears if tried. Coming into another little village I then had to use the other gears & suddenly there were no more noises & it got us home to Bedfordshire without further problems apart from jumping out of fifth on decels. Obviously we will need to sort out the jumping out of gear problem, hopefully with the gearbox in place judging by other correspondence, but any ideas about the other noises? are there any bearings that can be replaced through the end cover? The screaming noise sounded almost like a ball race with broken cage where the balls can lock up.

Alky

 

Latest situation on older 2.5 Turbo diesel Ducato 5th gear problems.
Since returning from Croatia where we had jumping out of gear on overrun, I have taken out the 5th gear assy. & the syncro hub, sleeve & running bush are all badly worn.
I have tried lots of places to find replacements & have been told by our local Fiat dealer that there are none in the country & they will need to be ordered from Italy or Brazil. Delivery can not be quoted & they could be 1 week, six weeks or may not even be available.
The cost?
Complete 5th gear unit - £425.00 plus VAT
Hardened running hub/bush - £50.00 plus VAT
Retaining nut - £5.00 plus VAT

What a rip-off

For information I have been told that although my 5th gear has 33 teeth & messes with a 43 tooth gear, they can also be a different size 43 tooth gear meshing with a 47 tooth gear.

Anyone know of a source for replacement gears?

ALKY